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General discussion

Windows setup cannot see hard drive

Jul 1, 2010 5:03AM PDT

The Windows XP disk I have used for years tells me that it cannot find a hard drive in my HP 6910p laptop. I previously had XP on this laptop and installed Windows 7 beta to give it a try. It ran OK. I got tired of seeing messages to upgrade so I decided to return the laptop to XP. Since then I have not been able to install XP because I get an error that no hard drive is found.

I bought a new drive and get the same result. I am able to run the HD diagnostic in the BIOS and it says the drive is OK.

Any suggestions to fix this?

Discussion is locked

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The HP 6910p uses a sata hard drive.
Jul 1, 2010 5:45AM PDT
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Bonus link.
Jul 1, 2010 5:48AM PDT
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Got it!
Jul 1, 2010 7:43AM PDT

You got it Bob. It was a SATA problem.

In the BIOS there is an entry that says "SATA native mode" and it defaults to "enabled." I changed it to "disabled" and the XP install is working fine now.

Thanks very much.

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That's a new one.
Jul 1, 2010 8:15AM PDT

I guess there are people just sitting around asking "What will we name this setting?"

Thanks for sharing this name.
Bob

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Similar Problem
Jul 1, 2010 4:19PM PDT

I have a HP Pavilion dv2500 and recently my hard disk failed, and I was forced to purchase a new one. I physically installed the new drive, and went to install Windows XP Pro. It previously had Windows Vista Home Premium, but seeing as it hogged all of my system memory, I decided to go with XP Pro from another computer that I previously used.

The setup does not see the new drive, and reading through this post, I looked through my entire BIOS setup and there is no setting for the hard drive configuration. I also ran the Hard Disk Self Test and it passed, so now im am at a loss.

Is there anything else that I can try? Or am I forced to send it to a technician to have them set it up for me...?

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Again, what is the BIOS setting called?
Jul 1, 2010 10:19PM PDT

I can't answer this since they name it some dozens of names. Read above and the links given and you see they found the name.

But the dv2500 may need more help from HP. Read an EXAMPLE install plan from this next link -> http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?threadID=271360#2699006

I can safely guess you might not have known how hard it was to install XP.

Any chance that you could step up to Windows 7?
Bob

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Pavilion DV2500
Jun 5, 2012 2:35PM PDT

I have a similar problem, my HDD died so I replaced it with a new one. Bought Windows 7 Ultimate, as I have it on my desktop and felt it was as good as time as any to ditch Vista from my laptop, but setup just won't find the drive.
I've taken it out and reinstalled it a dozen times but still no luck. I've even tried another spare HDD in it just in case the new one was faulty.

Any ideas?

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Check one thing.
Jun 5, 2012 2:42PM PDT

Is the drive shown in the BIOS?

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Not showing in BIOS
Jun 5, 2012 4:19PM PDT

I mistakenly thought that it was because it was it was shown in "boot devices" but, after running SeaToolsDos and then checking through "diagnostics" in BIOS it turns out that it isn't.
It states, in "BIOS - diagnostics" that there is "No IDE Drive" which is (kinda) correct as my HDD is SATA.
I can't find any way of changing the BIOS so that it looks for SATA instead of IDE.

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SeatoolsDOS rarely sees SATA drives.
Jun 6, 2012 3:40AM PDT

I'd try a Linux CD next.

I wonder if this machine has some RAID feature. Those can hide from Windows installs.
Bob

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I'll give it a try
Jun 6, 2012 7:25AM PDT

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Though I'm pretty sure the previous HDD was SATA also, well, the new one slotted in as easily as the old one came out at least.

I've never used LInux before, any recommendations on which Linux CD I should download as a Google search throws back thousands of results?

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UBUNTU
Jun 6, 2012 9:53AM PDT

Very complete with almost all drivers.

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i have the same problem
Nov 13, 2016 3:11AM PST

and no it doesnt show in the bios either

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See your new post in ...
Nov 13, 2016 4:34AM PST